Tyler Deric

John Tyler Deric (born August 30, 1988) is an American soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros in the USL Championship.

Youth and college soccer

Deric was coached by Scot Dymond at Texans SC during his youth career. Deric spent his high school years at Klein High School in Spring, Texas. There, Deric lead the Bearkats to a UIL 5A state championship in 2005 and received the honor of being named to the All-Tournament team as a sophomore in high school. His successful 2005 season came with a call up to the Texas ODP team. Deric was named, along with 49 other players, as the top 50 players to watch in the graduating class of 2007 by Top Drawer Soccer. In addition to his career at Klein High School, Deric joined the Houston Dynamo Academy on January 24, 2007. Deric soon gathered the attention of academy coach James Clarkson and Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear preceding his participation in the Dynamo Trials in 2008.

Deric attended the University of North Carolina from 2007–2008. During his time at UNC, he was awarded the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Freshman Honors after having started 17 out of the 20 games as a freshman. Deric had a .94 goals against average in his first year along with 48 saves and six clean sheets.

Professional career

Houston Dynamo

Deric became the first home grown player to be promoted from the Dynamo's developmental academy (and the second ever to do so in MLS after Tristan Bowen of Los Angeles Galaxy) when he signed a professional development contract with Houston on February 27, 2009. As the third-string goalkeeper, behind Tally Hall and Pat Onstad, Deric saw no playing time in games. Deric was loaned to USL team Austin Aztex in aim to get more playing time.

During the 2010 season, Deric became the first Academy Homegrown Player to start an MLS match. He made his professional debut on October 16, 2010 away to the San Jose Earthquakes, earning the shutout in a 1–0 victory. Deric broke the Dynamo's 12-game streak without a clean sheet after making 3 crucial saves and recording a shutout in his first appearance with the first team. To close the regular season, Deric appeared in the Dynamo's 2–1 win versus the Seattle Sounders, recording 5 saves.

For 2011, Pat Onstad had moved to DC United, making Deric the number 2 goalkeeper for Houston. Deric made no competitive first team appearances during 2011 besides a 2011 US Open Cup Qualifier loss to Sporting Kansas City. Deric did lead the MLS Reserve League with shutouts for 2011. For 2012 and 2013, Deric played only one league game but made three appearances in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, with one shutout, and played six games in the CONCACAF Champions League, going 3–1–2 with two shutouts. Deric was loaned to NASL club San Antonio Scorpions on August 4, 2012 for their game against Puerto Rico Islanders. He made his first MLS appearance since 2010 on October 31, 2012 against the Colorado Rapids, a 2–0 loss despite Deric making 7 saves. During a road game on August 29 against Sporting Kansas City, Dynamo's first-choice goalkeeper, Tally Hall, suffered a torn ACL. Deric got to start the final 9 games of the season.

For 2015, Deric became the Houston starting goalkeeper after Tally Hall was traded to Orlando City. Deric had a strong start to the season, winning the MLS Save of the Week for weeks 2, 3, and 4 and being nominated for the award for the first 7 weeks of the season. He would win 4 and be nominated for 10 Save of the Week awards on the year as Deric cemented himself as the Dynamo number 1 goalkeeper.

Deric missed the first 6 games of 2016 with an abdominal strain. Deric made his first appearance of the season on April 23 against the Columbus Crew, a game in which he saw a red card. He then spent 1 game with the Dynamo's USL affiliate Rio Grande Valley FC before making 8 starts for the Dynamo. He suffered another abdominal strain injury in practice that made him miss 5 games. Deric returned to RGVFC to regain match fitness, but he suffered an elbow injury in his first appearance. He would miss the rest of the season.

Deric returned from injury in time to start the 2017 season. He started the first 5 games before getting benched in favor of Joe Willis. Deric regained his starting spot after 7 weeks on the bench and got a 1–1 draw against FC Dallas in his first game back. Deric had a strong end of the season, winning 2 of the final 3 games with 2 of them being clean sheets, to lead the Dynamo into the playoffs for the first time since 2013. His performances earned him the MLS Player of the Month award for October. In the 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs, Deric had clean sheet in the Dynamo's 1–0 win over Sporting Kansas City in the knockout round and another clean sheet in their 0–0 first leg draw with Portland Timbers in the first leg of the Western Conference Semi Finals. Deric was suspended by the league indefinitely on October 31, 2017 following his arrest for domestic violence, forcing him to miss the rest of the playoffs.

Deric's suspension ended and was reinstated by MLS on July 5, 2018. He was loaned to RGVFC and made his first appearance in over 8 months on July 22, a 0–0 draw with Swope Park Rangers. Deric would start 2 games for the Dynamo before the end of the year.

Deric started the season as the backup to Joe Willis and made a few appearances with RGVFC. He made his first appearance of the season for the Dynamo on June 11 in a 3–2 win over Austin Bold in the US Open Cup. Deric would make his first of 5 straight MLS starts on July 17, a 5–0 defeat to Atlanta United. Houston would win only one of those 5 games before switching back to Willis. However, Deric would start the final 2 games of the season for the Dynamo. On November 21, the Dynamo declined the option on Deric's contract, making him a free agent.

Rio Grande Valley FC

On February 25, 2021, Deric signed with Rio Grande Valley FC.

Personal

In February 2012, Deric and teammate Warren Creavelle were arrested at night following a dispute with an off-duty police officer. Deric, accused of assaulting a public servant, was held in containment over night and released the following day, Sunday. Deric argued the officer was racist to his teammates after denying them entrance into a bar. All charges were later dropped on Deric.

On October 31, 2017, Deric was arrested, and subsequently suspended indefinitely by MLS, after being arrested for allegedly headbutting his girlfriend. On July 5, 2018, Deric was reinstated by MLS. Deric had made a plea agreement with the Harris Country District Attorney.

Career statistics

Honors

Club

Houston Dynamo

* US Open Cup: 2018

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deric, Tyler
1988 births
Living people
American men's soccer players
Men's association football goalkeepers
Austin Aztex FC players
Homegrown Players (MLS)
Houston Dynamo FC players
Major League Soccer players
North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players
North Carolina Tar Heels men's soccer players
Sportspeople from Spring, Texas
Rio Grande Valley FC Toros players
San Antonio Scorpions players
Soccer players from Texas
USL Championship players